Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Jerome Charyn has a distinct style that really brings out the humanity of the protagonists of his historical fiction novels. Jerzy Kosinski is the perfect subject for Charyn. Unlike his other novels, Kosinski is not the narrator of Jerzy; rather, his story is told by other figures from his life. And his story is not for the faint of heart - it is raw, gritty, and, quite frankly, depraved.

An interesting technique that Charyn uses in Jerzy is to tell the story in reverse chronological order. The first character who narrates Kosinski's life is one he did not meet until closer to his death; the very last section, concerns Kosinski's childhood. Telling the story this way is like peeling back layers to show the real inner-workings of Kosinski and how he grew.

Jerzy is perhaps the most disturbing of all of the Jerome Charyn's novels I have read so far, and that unnerved me which made it hard for me to get into, or even just concentrate on, the story. Charyn is a very talented writer, but, as Jerzy shows, his writing is not for everyone.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Thoughts: This was another book that I had not read as a child but had read others in the series. Ramona is still as entertaining now as she was then, but the new (2006) illustrations just do not fit with the 1975 text.

Thoughts: I never read this when I was little (although I did read some other books in the Fudge series). Definitely a fun, quick read that will entertain adults as well as children, but most likely for different reasons.

Friday, May 5, 2017

Thoughts: The first installment of The Geneva Project throws a lot of world-building at the reader, but unfortunately, not all of it makes sense. Also, a not-always-likable main character does not help.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Thoughts: Not a big fan of natural disaster novels, especially lost at sea ones, but this has some great parts that do not involve being lost at sea. I am curious to see where this goes in the next installment.

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All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the reviewer and not necessarily of Reading Challenged. No compensation has been provided for any review. Unless otherwise noted, all book cover images were taken from Goodreads.